Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The House of Life. Sonnet 67. The Landmark

Was that the landmark? What,--the foolish well
Whose wave, low down, I did not stoop to drink,
But sat and flung the pebbles from its brink
In sport to send its imaged skies pell-mell,
(And mine own image, had I noted well!)--
Was that my point of turning?--I had thought
The stations of my course should rise unsought,
As altar-stone or ensigned citadel.

But lo! the path is missed, I must go back,
And thirst to drink when next I reach the spring
Which once I stained, which since may have grown black.
Yet though no light be left nor bird now sing
As here I turn, I'll thank God, hastening,
That the same goal is still on the same track.

1. The House of Life. Sonnet 61. The Song-Throe
2. The House of Life. Sonnet 84. Farewell to the Glen
3. The House of Life. Sonnet 14. Youth's Spring-Tribute
4. The House of Life. Sonnet 45. Secret Parting
5. The House of Life. Sonnet 87. Death's Songsters

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